As a young attorney in the tax department of Davis Polk& Wardwell I had the incredibly good fortune to be taken under the wing of one of the senior partners in the department and the firm. John P. Carroll, Jr.
was a giant in the field of taxation, a man with an astounding intellect and a capacity for creativity few others, if any, could equal. For those of you are familiar with finance and taxation, John is credited with inventing the interest rate swap and creating and executing the first corporate inversion. We worked together on what was, at the time, the largest tax litigation ever.
For reasons I have never understood John liked me and liked to keep me close at hand. This meant always being in the office when John was there, and he worked late into the night every night. I had dinner with John most nights at 11pm at his favorite restaurant on the Upper East Side before taking a car service (thatʼs what you did in those days) to my apartment on East 19th Street or later, after I was married, to Long Island.
Most importantly, Johnʼs fondness for me meant that he was more generous with me than I had any reason to expect and gave me the space and opportunity to work through difficult emotional issues including the loss of my mom when I was only 29. John taught me how to do research, think and analyze. Most importantly, if it were not for Johnʼs continuing understanding and support my professional career would likely have ended there and then.
And that is the reason for this note. There is so much animated discussion these days about mentorship of young professionals. Some of that relates to remote work and the extra challenges that creates.
But the conversation is always about teaching technical skills and the tools necessary to excel and move your career forward. Of course, that is extremely important and young professionals should always seek out mentors both in their firms and elsewhere. But mentorship should be about a lot more.
It needs to be about teaching ethics and the importance of professional and personal integrity. This is critically important at a time when public role models are hard to find, and we appear to have collectively embraced both intellectual and moral mediocrity. Beyond that, mentors need to help young people deal with the complexities and emotional challenges they face every day.
This may be an unpopular view, but I have always believed that individuals canʼt and should not be expected to leave their personal lives outside of the office. I have been involved in countless discussions about corporate culture and have read lots of creative formulations that try to capture the essence of a positive working environment. In my mind, the most fundamental point is that you need to recognize that the person sitting next to you, or in the office next to yours is a human being just like you.
Almost everything you have you have in common. We all need nurturing and support in addition to guidance and instruction. It starts at the top of the organization.